“When people start writing there is this idea that you have to get everything right first time, every sentence has to be perfect, every paragraph has to be perfect, every chapter has to be perfect, but what youre doing is not any kind of public show, until youre ready for it.” PeopleWritingFirstsKindIdeasShowsPerfectReadyFirst TimeSentencesChaptersParagraph Author:Irvine Welsh
“The first time I went to West Virginia I was surprised by how poor it was. It was like north India, there's kids running around in bare feet. The white working class has been disenfranchised as well. It's been disenfranchised by the liberal-left as well as the conservative-right. You really have to get people right across America and Britain and Europe and the world as a whole concentrating on the economic issues that affect them, because when you don't have that, you have all these phony, racist and cultural wars, and sexist wars.” PeopleWorldFirstsWellsHas BeensWarWholeRunningKidsAmericaLeftWhitePoorClassIssuesFeetEconomicFirst TimeEuropeIndiaWestConservativeBritainRacistWorking ClassVirginiaConcentratingSexistPhonyWest VirginiaBare FeetDisenfranchisedEconomic Issues Author:Irvine Welsh
“The first of the Trainspotting crew to die. Out of the five of them like, Begbie, Renton, Spud, Sick Boy and [Margaret] Thatcher. Who'd have thunk she'd have been the first to go? She was the invisible author of the book, really. She created the conditions and the hubris whereby that whole culture flourished.” FirstsHas BeensBookWholeDiesCultureBoysFiveConditionsSickInvisibleCrewHubrisTrainspotting Author:Irvine Welsh
“It's interesting - you had [George] Osborne crying at [Margaret Tatcher] funeral. She would have been the first person, she would have read these tears as being as fake as the smiles of his predecessors when they knifed her in the back.” FirstsPersonsHas BeensInterestingCryTearsFakeFuneralFirst PersonPredecessors Author:Irvine Welsh
“People are really excited by Obama abroad because he seems to be the first American presidential candidate who has ambition to go out of the country. In a sense, with the power of globalization, you are kind of electing the leader of the Western world to an extent.” PeopleWorldFirstsKindCountrySeemsLeaderAmbitionWesternExcitedPresidentialCandidatesGlobalizationWestern WorldPresidential CandidateAmerican President Author:Irvine Welsh
“You write people as human beings first and then the gender specific stuff second.” PeopleWritingFirstsHumansStuffHuman BeingsGender Author:Irvine Welsh
“You've got first-generation Americans here who are going to be poorer than their parents. That's never happened in the States before, and it's going to have massive social repercussions here.” FirstsStatesSocialParentGenerationsHappenedMassiveRepercussions Author:Irvine Welsh
“When you start off with your first book, people assume that you're like all the characters in the book - and it does complicate things, when you're being constantly bombarded with it, but you have to embrace it.” PeopleFirstsDoeBookCharacterEmbraceAssumingBombarded Author:Irvine Welsh
“Now, for the first time, he's seeing that there really is a way out of this, and it's all so simple. You don't have to run away. You just meet somebody special and step sideways into a parallel universe.” WayFirstsRunningUniverseSimpleStepsSeeingSpecialFirst TimeRunning AwayParallelsSidewaysParallel UniverseSomebody Special Author:Irvine Welsh
“I think young writers should get other degrees first, social sciences, arts degrees or even business degrees. What you learn is research skills, a necessity because a lot of writing is about trying to find information.” ThinkingInspirationalShouldWritingTryingFirstsArtFunnyYoungLiteratureSocialInformationSkillsDegreesResearchGraduationSocial ScienceWelshYoung WritersArts Degrees Author:Irvine Welsh
“The first job of a writer is to be honest.” FirstsJobsLiteratureHonestBeing Honest Author:Irvine Welsh
“When I first started to get into writing, it was via music. I'd generate ideas for songs that would turn into stories, then they'd turn into novels. I was biased toward music.” WritingFirstsIdeasStoriesSongTurnsLiteratureMusicNovelPrejudiceBiased Author:Irvine Welsh
